Barrot praised Lebanon\u2019s government for expelling the ambassador of Iran, calling the move \u201ccourageous\u201d after Hezbollah \u2014 backed by Tehran \u2014 fired rockets into Israel earlier in March. Israel subsequently re-invaded Lebanon, having pulled back in 2024 after a short conflict during which it also targeted Hezbollah.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to commend the statements and actions of the Lebanese government \u2026 which this morning took a courageous decision by deciding to expel the Iranian ambassador,\u201d Barrot said, adding Hezbollah had \u201cdragged the country \u2026 into a war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barrot\u2019s warning follows a visit to Lebanon and Israel last week, where he pressed<\/a> interlocutors from both countries on the risks of further escalation.<\/p>\n His comments come as Western leaders harden their message<\/a> to Israel. In a joint statement<\/a> from mid-March, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the U.K. warned that a major Israeli ground offensive would have \u201cdevastating humanitarian consequences\u201d and risk prolonging the conflict, urging a political solution.<\/p>\n Israel’s operations in Lebanon continued, however. More than a million people in southern Lebanon have fled their homes because of the new offensive, and more than a thousand people \u2014 including about 100 children \u2014 have been killed by Israeli strikes, which have also targeted the Lebanese capital Beirut in the center of the country.<\/p>\n Katz has said<\/a> hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese residents would not be allowed to return to areas south of the Litani River until security is guaranteed, raising the prospect of prolonged displacement and extended Israeli control in parts of southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n The spiraling conflict comes against the backdrop of the wider regional war<\/a> that began on Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran. Hezbollah joined the conflict<\/a> soon after, breaking a fragile ceasefire with Israel earlier this month. Iranian missiles have also been shot down over Lebanon during the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barrot praised Lebanon\u2019s government for expelling the ambassador of Iran, calling the move \u201ccourageous\u201d after Hezbollah \u2014 backed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[15489,949,177,686,648,382,537,34,37,384,1375,93,179,443,691,51,36,226],"class_list":["post-34204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-borders","tag-canada","tag-conflict","tag-crisis","tag-defense","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-italy","tag-jean-noel-barrot","tag-lebanon","tag-military","tag-security","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-war","tag-war-in-iran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}